Refrigerator and drawer assembly thereof

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator includes a refrigerator main body; and a drawer guide assembly configured to guide movement of a drawer relative to the refrigerator main body. The drawer guide assembly include a first rail coupled to a side engagement portion of the drawer and operable to transfer a load of the drawer in a downward direction, and a second rail coupled to a sidewall of the refrigerator main body and configured to guide movement of the first rail. The second rail is configured to reduce impact between the drawer and the refrigerator main body responsive to drawer movement relative to the refrigerator main body.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims priority from Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2016-0045085, filed on Apr. 12, 2016, the disclosureof which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference for allpurposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to refrigerators, and more particularly,to storage drawer assemblies in refrigerators.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally speaking, a refrigerator is an appliance that can storeobjects at a low temperature, e.g., in a frozen state or a refrigeratedstate.

The storage space in the refrigerator is cooled by circulation of coldair which can be continuously generated through heat exchange in arefrigeration cycle between air and refrigerant. For example, therefrigeration cycle includes compression, condensation, expansion andevaporation.

A main body of the refrigerator may have a rectangular parallel-pipedshape with an open front surface. Typically, the main body encloses arefrigeration compartment or compartment and a freezer compartment, eachwith its own door. The refrigerator may include a plurality of drawers,shelves, vegetable compartments and the like for sorting and storingdifferent types of items.

In a conventional refrigerator, storage drawers can be drawn out andpushed back through sliding rail mechanisms. Sometimes a user needsperform maintenance on a drawer, e.g., for cleaning or repair.Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to separate a drawer from such asliding rail mechanism, thus making drawer maintenance difficult toperform.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a drawer guide assemblyfor a refrigerator that allows easy installation and removal of astorage drawer in the refrigerator.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, arefrigerator includes a refrigerator main body and a drawer guideassembly configured to guide movement of a drawer relative to therefrigerator main body. The drawer guide assembly includes: a first railcoupled to a side engagement portion of the drawer and operable totransfer a load of the drawer in a downward direction; and a second railcoupled to a sidewall of the refrigerator main body and configured toguide movement of the first rail, where the second rail is configured toreduce impact between the drawer and the refrigerator main bodyresponsive to drawer movement relative to the refrigerator main body.

The first rail may include a first end fitted to a first end portion ofthe drawer and a second end fixed to a second end portion of the drawer.

The drawer may include an engaging hole at an end surface, and whereinthe engaging hole is configured to receive the first end of the firstrail.

The first rail may include an engaging member fitted to the first endportion of the drawer. The engaging member may include a supporting hookprojecting in an upward direction from the first end of the first rail,and an engaging hook extending in a horizontal direction from thesupporting hook and fixed to the first end portion of the drawer.

The refrigerator main body may include a freezer compartment and arefrigeration compartment, and the drawer guide assembly may be disposedinside the freezer compartment.

The second rail may include a guide rail. The guide rail may include afirst end portion configured to support the first rail, a second endportion fixed to a sidewall of the refrigerator main body via asupporter, and a supporting bracket fixed to the supporter and operableto support a lower portion of the guide rail.

The second rail may include a damping unit disposed at both end portionsof the guide rail. The damping unit may be configured to reduce impactdue to the movement of the drawer.

The second rail may further include a push-open unit disposed at an endportion of the guide rail and configured to release the drawer from alocked position when the drawer is subject to a push-in force.

Embodiments of the present disclosure advantageously allow a drawer tobe coupled to the rail in a vertical manner. The rail can be assembledwith and disassembled from the drawer without requiring special tools,and the drawers can be easily drawn out and pushed back.

Further, embodiments of the present disclosure enable the load of thedrawer to be supported in a vertical direction. In this fashion, theload of the drawer can be stably and uniformly distributed when thedrawer moves in and out from the refrigerator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a side cross section of an exemplary refrigeratoraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of an exemplary drawer guideassembly of the refrigerator according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates the drawer guide assembly viewed from the A-A line ofFIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of the exemplary drawer guideassembly in a state that a supporter is removed.

FIG. 5 illustrates a partial cutout view of an exemplary drawer of therefrigerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, configurations and operations of embodiments will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Thefollowing description is one of various patentable aspects of thedisclosure and may form a part of the detailed description of thedisclosure. However, in describing the disclosure, detailed descriptionsof known configurations or functions may be omitted to not obscure thedisclosure.

The disclosure may be variously modified and may include variousembodiments. Specific embodiments will be exemplarily illustrated in thedrawings and described in the detailed description of the embodiments.However, it should be understood that they are not intended to limit thedisclosure to specific embodiments but rather to cover allmodifications, similarities, and alternatives which are included in thespirit and scope of the disclosure.

The terms used herein, including ordinal numbers such as “first” and“second” may be used to describe, and not to limit, various components.The terms simply distinguish the components from one another. When it issaid that a component is “coupled” or “linked” to another component, itshould be understood that the former component may be directly coupledor linked to the latter component or a third component may be interposedbetween the two components. Specific terms used in the presentapplication are used simply to describe specific embodiments withoutlimiting the disclosure. An expression used in the singular encompassesthe expression of the plural, unless it has a clearly different meaningin the context.

FIG. 1 illustrates a side cross section of an exemplary refrigeratoraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustratesa perspective view of an exemplary drawer guide assembly of therefrigerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG.3 illustrates the drawer guide assembly viewed from A-A line of FIG. 2.FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of the exemplary drawer guideassembly in a state that a supporter is removed according to theembodiment. FIG. 5 illustrates a partial cutout view of an exemplarydrawer of the refrigerator according to the embodiment.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the exemplary refrigerator includes a rail anda drawer 50 can be coupled to, and decoupled from, the rail in avertical manner and in a convenient fashion. The drawer 50 has a dampingfunction and a push-open function.

In this example, the refrigerator is a bottom freezer type refrigeratorin which a freezer compartment 11 is located at a lower part of therefrigerator. However, it will be appreciated that the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto and may be applied to various types ofrefrigerators.

The refrigerator may include a refrigerator main body 10 forming theexterior of the refrigerator, doors, a cold air generating unit 30 forgenerating cold air, and a drawer guide assembly 100 for supporting andguiding movement of the drawer 60 in and out from the refrigerator mainbody 10.

More specifically, the refrigerator main body 10 includes the freezercompartment 11 and the refrigeration compartment 12 which are separatedby a barrier wall. For example, the freezer compartment 11 that includesthe drawer guide assembly 100 may be located at a lower portion of therefrigerator main body 10, and the refrigeration compartment 12 may belocated at an upper portion of the refrigerator main body 10. Thefreezer compartment 11 and the refrigeration compartment 12 are coveredby the doors.

The doors may include a refrigeration compartment door and a freezercompartment door. When the freezer compartment 11 is closed, its doorseals a periphery of a lower front surface of the refrigerator main body10. When the refrigeration compartment is closed, its door seals aperiphery of an upper front surface of the refrigerator main body 10.

The cold air generation unit 30 can generate cold air for cooling thefreezer compartment 11 and the refrigeration compartment 12. Forexample, the cold air generation unit 30 may include a compressor, acondenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator coil. Air becomes coldthrough heat exchange with a refrigerant which goes through therefrigeration cycle of compression, condensation, expansion andevaporation. The refrigerant circulates through the compressor, thecondenser, the expansion valve and the evaporator coil. Accordingly, therefrigerator interior can be cooled by the cold air supplied from thecold air generation unit 30.

The drawer guide assembly 100 may include a pair of first rails 110assembled to side engagement portions 51 of the drawer 50 and a pair ofsecond rails 120 installed at sidewalls of the refrigerator main body10. The second rails 120 can guide the movement of the first rails 110.The side engagement portions 51 of the drawer 50 are grooves recessed atlower portions of both sides of the drawer 50. Therefore, the load ofthe drawer 50 (including the items stored therein) can be transferred tothe second rails 120 through the first rails 110.

The first rail 110 of the drawer guide assembly 100 has a movable railstructure extending along the front-back direction of the refrigerator.The first rail 110 may have a “f”-shaped vertical cross section and canbe supported by a second rail 120. The first rail 110 can guide thedrawer 60 in and out while sliding along the second rail 120.

The first rail 110 can be easily coupled to and decoupled from thedrawer 50. For example, to couple the first rail 110 to the drawer 50, afront end of the first rail 110 can be fixed to a front end portion ofthe drawer 50 by using a screw while a rear end of the first rail 110 isfitted to a rear end portion of the drawer 50. To decouple the firstrail 110 from the drawer 50, the front end of the first rail 110 can beseparated from the front end portion of the drawer 50 by unscrewing thescrew. The rear end of the first rail 110 can then be separated from therear end portion of the drawer 50.

An engaging member 111 may be disposed at the rear end of the first rail11 and can be engaged with the rear end portion (e.g., an engaging hole52) of the drawer 50. The engaging member 111 may include a supportinghook 111 a projecting in an upward direction from one end of the firstrail 110 and an engaging hook 111 b extending in a horizontal directionfrom the supporting hook 111 a. The engaging hook 111 b can be coupledto (e.g., fixed to) one end portion of the drawer 50.

Thus, to couple the drawer 50 with the first rail 110, the front end ofthe first rail 110 is fixed to a screw hole 53 of the drawer 50 by thescrew while the engaging hook 111 b of the engaging member 111 is fittedto the engaging hole 52 of the drawer 50. This process is advantageouslyeasy to employ and convenient compared with the conventional art. Byperforming the reverse process, the first rail 110 can be quickly andconveniently separated from the drawer 50.

The second rail 120 has a supporting rail structure extending in thefront-back direction of the refrigerator. The second rail 120 can befixed to the sidewall of the refrigerator main body 10 via a supporter130. To allow the first rail 110 to be supported by one side of a guiderail 122 of the second rail 120, the other side of the guide rail 122 isfixed to the upper portion of the supporter by a plurality of screws.

The second rail 120 is configured to damp the impact between the drawer50 and the refrigerator main body 10 when the drawer 50 is pushed in ordrawn out by a user. For example, the second rail 120 may also provide apush-open function that allows the drawer 50 to slide out when thedrawer 50 is pushed by a user.

The second rail 120 may include: a guide rail 122 having a “∪”-shapedvertical cross section and fixed to an upper portion of the supporter130; a supporting bracket 123 for supporting the lower portion of theguide rail 122 while being fixed to a lower portion of the supporter 130by screws; a damping unit 125 provided at both end portions of the guiderail 122 to reduce impact generated when the drawer moves relative tothe refrigerator (damping function); and a push-open unit 124 disposedat a front end portion of the guide rail 122.

The damping unit 125 may include a buffer member such as a buffer springor the like. The damping unit 125 can reduce the impact between thedrawer 50 and the refrigerator main body 10, e.g., especially when thedrawer 50 is completely pushed inside the refrigerator main body 10 orfully pulled out from the refrigerator main body 10. Such a damping unit125 can be implemented in any suitable configuration that is well knownin the art. The detailed description thereof is omitted herein forbrevity.

The push-open unit 124 may be installed at the rear end portion of theguide rail 122. When the drawer 50 is fully pushed inside therefrigerator main body 10, the position of the drawer 50 can be locked.However, when the drawer 50 is pushed by a user, the drawer 50 isreleased from the locked state so that the drawer 50 can be drawn out orslide out automatically. The push-open unit 124 that can provide apush-open function may be implemented in any suitable configuration thatis well known in the art. The detailed description thereof is omittedherein for brevity. For example, the push-open unit 124 utilizes springtension.

Therefore, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, a slidingrail is coupled to a drawer in a vertical manner. This provides theadvantages that the drawer can be assembled with, or separated from, therail by a user without requiring special tools. The configuration alsoallows the drawer to be pulled out and pushed back with little effectfrom a user. Further, since the load of the drawer is supported in thevertical direction, the load of the drawer can be stably and uniformlydistributed even when the drawer moves along the rail.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various embodiments ofthe present disclosure have been described herein for purposes ofillustration, and that various modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Theexemplary embodiments disclosed in the specification of the presentdisclosure do not limit the present disclosure. The scope of the presentdisclosure will be interpreted by the claims below, and it will beconstrued that all techniques within the scope equivalent thereto belongto the scope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A refrigerator comprising: a refrigerator mainbody; and a drawer guide assembly configured to guide movement of adrawer relative to the refrigerator main body, wherein the drawer guideassembly comprises: a first rail coupled to a side engagement portion ofthe drawer and operable to transfer a load of the drawer in a downwarddirection; and a second rail coupled to a sidewall of the refrigeratormain body and configured to guide movement of the first rail, where thesecond rail is configured to reduce impact between the drawer and therefrigerator main body responsive to drawer movement relative to therefrigerator main body.
 2. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein thefirst rail comprises a first end fitted to a first end portion of thedrawer and a second end fixed to a second end portion of the drawer. 3.The refrigerator of claim 2, wherein the drawer comprises an engaginghole at an end surface, and wherein the engaging hole is configured toreceive the first end of the first rail.
 4. The refrigerator of claim 2,wherein the first rail comprises an engaging member fitted to the firstend portion of the drawer, wherein the engaging member comprises: asupporting hook projecting in an upward direction from the first end ofthe first rail; and an engaging hook extending in a horizontal directionfrom the supporting hook and fixed to the first end portion of thedrawer.
 5. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the refrigerator mainbody comprises a freezer compartment and a refrigeration compartment,and wherein the drawer guide assembly is disposed inside the freezercompartment.
 6. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the second railcomprises a guide rail, the guide rail comprising: a first end portionconfigured to support the first rail; and a second end portion fixed toa sidewall of the refrigerator main body via a supporter; and asupporting bracket fixed to the supporter and operable to support alower portion of the guide rail.
 7. The refrigerator of claim 6, whereinthe second rail comprises: a damping unit disposed at both end portionsof the guide rail, wherein the damping unit is configured to reduceimpact due to the movement of the drawer.
 8. The refrigerator of claim6, wherein the second rail further comprises: a push-open unit disposedat an end portion of the guide rail and configured to release the drawerfrom a locked position when the drawer is subject to a push-in force. 9.A refrigerator comprising: a refrigerator main body; a drawer configuredto contain items therein; and a drawer guide assembly configured toguide movement of the drawer relative to the refrigerator main body,wherein the drawer guide assembly comprises: a first rail assembled to aside engagement portion of the drawer and operable to transfer a load ofthe drawer in a downward direction, wherein the first rail comprises: afirst end coupled to a first end portion of the drawer; and a second endcoupled to a second end portion of the drawer; and a second raildisposed at a sidewall of the refrigerator main body and configured toguide movement of the first rail, wherein the second rail is configuredto release the drawer from a locked position when the drawer is subjectto a push-in force.
 10. A drawer guide assembly for a refrigeratorhaving a main body, the drawer guide assembly comprising: a first railconfigured to be coupled to a side engagement portion of a drawer andoperable to transfer a load of the drawer in a downward direction,wherein the first rail comprises: a first end configured to be coupledto a first end portion of the drawer; and a second end configured to becoupled to a second end portion of the drawer; and a second railconfigured to be disposed at a sidewall of the main body of therefrigerator and configured to guide movement of the first rail, whereinthe second rail is configured to enable the drawer to move outward fromthe refrigerator main body when the drawer is subject to a push-inforce.
 11. The drawer guide assembly of claim 10, wherein the first railcomprises an engaging member coupled to one end portion of the drawer,and wherein the engaging member comprises: a supporting hook projectingupward from the first end of the first rail; and an engaging hookextending in a horizontal direction from the supporting hook and coupledto the first end portion of the drawer.
 12. The drawer guide assembly ofclaim 10, wherein the second rail comprises a guide rail, the guide railcomprising: a first end portion configured to support the first rail;and a second end portion operable to be fixed to a sidewall of therefrigerator main body via a supporter; and a supporting bracket fixedto the supporter to support a lower portion of the guide rail.
 13. Thedrawer guide assembly of claim 12, wherein the second rail comprises adamping unit disposed at both end portions of the guide rail, whereinthe damping unit is configured to reduce impact between the drawer andthe refrigerator main body responsive to the drawer being drawn out orpushed in.
 14. The drawer guide assembly of claim 12, wherein the secondrail comprises a push-open unit disposed at an end portion of the guiderail and configured to lock a position of the drawer when the drawer isinside the refrigerator main body.
 15. The drawer guide assembly ofclaim 14, wherein the push-open unit is configured to release the drawerfrom a locked position when the drawer is subject to a push-in force.